June 16, 2012

It’s supposed to be a hot day today, so be sure to drink plenty of fluids when you’re out touring Open Houses! Here are a couple of articles about dead people you could discuss once you’ve submitted your overbids.

This is a really juicy tale complete with a handwritten will with an illegible signature, along with allegations of mixing alcohol with Valium causing death of the beloved Painter of Light.

Steve Jobs is also under discussion, due to the movie crew that has been filming at his old house in Los Altos. We can personally attest to the crowds as we drove by the street (on a completely unrelated errand which we swear we are not making up).

This Murky News article has a good quote from his adopted sister Patty that they got many of the period details right but brought in the wrong kind of furniture. Steve Jobs’ dad remarried, and second wife Marilyn much fussier and frillier taste in interior decor than first wife Clara, who was more minimalist.

Some of the fuss was over actor Ashton Kutcher who was playing Jobs. Another Aaron Sorken movie is in the works, based on the Walter Isaacson biography.

Feel free to discuss some live people or houses actually for sale in this Open Thread.

April 8, 2012

Here’s something to deepen your observation of Easter. While devout Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus today, this man’s passing on Good Friday leads to a kind of different kind of immortality, and we are not talking about paintings.

Thomas Kinkade, the “Painter of Light” and one of the most popular artists in America, died suddenly Friday at his Los Gatos home. He was 54.

His family said in a statement that his death appeared to be from natural causes.

“Thom provided a wonderful life for his family,” his wife, Nanette, said in a statement. “We are shocked and saddened by his death.”

His paintings are hanging in an estimated one of every 20 homes in the United States. Fans cite the warm, familiar feeling of his mass-produced works of art, while it has become fashionable for art critics to dismiss his pieces as tacky. In any event, his prints of idyllic cottages and bucolic garden gates helped establish a brand — famed for their painted highlights — not commonly seen in the art world.

“I’m a warrior for light,” Kinkade told the Mercury News in 2002, alluding not just to his technical skill at creating light on canvas but to the medieval practice of using light to symbolize the divine. “With whatever talent and resources I have, I’m trying to bring light to penetrate the darkness many people feel.”

Now, if you want to instead refer to the Los Gatos Patch (an AOL-owned series of hyperlocal blogs), Kinkade actually died in Monte Sereno, while with his live-in girlfriend, as he had been estranged from his wife for two years. That would explain why his family was in Australia at the time of his death. Kincade’s passing is indeed relevant to the Real Bay Area, since he lived in Los Gatos. Or Monte Sereno, depending on which reported version you prefer. But this scan of the firefighters’ frequency shows an engine was dispatched to 16342 Ridgecrest Ave, due to a 54 year old male “drinking all night, not moving.” That address is owned by someone named Kinkade, and also had an “under influence of drugs/alcohol” arrest there last year. The address is missing from most property databases, though, including the Recorder’s Office.

Kinkade certainly has his staunch supporters and determined detractors. This Mercury News article generated 150 comments in just a few hours and had more than 250 by the following afternoon. Most Merc articles draw under 20 comments. The NY Times obituary generated an even more derisive stream of criticism, while the Washington Post put the negative commentary in the article itself. The daddy of all Kinkade-dissing news items has to go to this 2006 Los Angeles Times piece, though.

But there’s an aspect of Thomas Kinkade that had managed to elude us all this time. It turns out that his kitschy paintings of cottages in the woods inspired multiple housing developments.

That’s right, for the fan who isn’t content with buying a snowglobe or a throw rug, there were plans for actual tract houses trying to look like his paintings. And one of the first such developments, the Village at Hiddenbrooke, was built in Vallejo right as dot.com went dot.bomb in 2001. The homes were 1800-2600 square feet on 4000 square foot lots. The large photo above is interior décor from one of those model homes. Most of the links to the builder and the development in the Salon article are now defunct.

It’s not easy figuring out which streets in Hiddenbrooke are part of The Village. And given that the builder was London-based, that’s a particularly interesting name for a community accused of being somewhat, um, ersatz. Here’s a home that sold last year, and do check out its history, because it sold for less in 2011 than when it was sold new nine years beforehand. You can check out the neighborhood on Redfin but nothing seems to be for sale there now.

However, Kinkade did not stop with just the one housing development in Vallejo.

The photo at right shows the team planning for five Kinkade-inspired $4 to $6 million luxury homes around Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho named The Gates of Coeur d’Alene. This project was launched in (of course) 2006, at the height of bubblicious housing insanity.

Plans for 100 homes based on the cottage paintings were being developed later that winter for a project in Columbia, Missouri called The Gates at Old Hawthorne. Prices were expected to come in at $500,000 to $1 million. It’s not clear if any of these plans came to fruition, as the builder’s website no longer seems to exist. This 2007 article reflects the typical attitude of housing boosters, acknowledging the slowdown but insisting that It’s Special Here and full steam ahead for the Kinkade development:

The homes are being built at a time when the U.S. home market is declining. However, Columbia and Boone County have been able to avoid the national trend. The median price for new single-family homes in Boone County has steadily increased, going from around $136,000 in May 2003 to a little over $188,000 in May of this year. And while the price of new homes is rising, the number of homes being built has decreased from 79 single-family units in May 2003 to 52 this May.

“In general, our home market is good, (but) it’s not as good as last year’s,” said Brent Jones, president of the Columbia Board of Realtors. According to Jones, the present home market is a buyer’s market. The effects of the market are even more apparent in the sale of high-end houses, like the Kinkade homes. […]

“News stories give the idea that the market is homogenous,” Jones said. He cited cities that have experienced extreme home appreciation, and are now experiencing just as extreme depreciation. The Columbia market is relatively stable and hasn’t had the appreciation that other markets have experienced, .

However, market fluctuations are not a concern for HST.

“One of the reasons we came to Columbia is because Columbia’s economy is so strong,” Stewart said. Sales of the Kinkade houses are surpassing the inventory, Stewart added.

THIS IS A UNIQUE HOME UNLIKE ANY OTHER! COMPLETELY CUSTOM BUILT HOME! This home is one of a kind contemporary master piece-sold WAY under valued. Live in the prestigous neighborhood on Santa Rosa Drive with unparallel views of the valley below! Beautiful contemporary estate. HUGE PRICE REDUCTION! MAKE YOUR OFFER!

Well, this is certainly an unusual house, and an unusual way to start the week. Let’s see what the anonymous Burbed reader who sent this in had to say:

I hate to pick on a house once owned by RBA-king Steve Wozniak, but I’ve been watching this one with interest for at least a year.It started at a $10 million list price and after at least four cuts, the realtor screams “HUGE PRICE REDUCTION! MAKE YOUR OFFER!”No kidding, what a bargain at $3.9M, huh?I actually feel bad for the flipper (or at least the financiers behind it), and even before the crash late last summer I thought he overpaid by a couple million.He paid $6.9 million after all.The bubble owner/sellers must be very happy now!

Oh, and the original website set up to market this house even had quotes of praise from Thomas Kinkade.(Yes, the franchised purveyor of so-called “fine art.”)

Wow! Wow! Wow!

This is your last chance to own a piece of Silicon Valley history. Imagine living here? It’s amazing. It’s stunning. It’s too awesome to believe!

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